Nuit

"I danced with my shadows until they became part of my light.” ― Jodi Livon

This piece started out as an idea that I had, inspired by a scene in Michael Fassbinder's lovely "Jane Eyre", where Rochester is pawing through Jane's paintings, holds one up and asks her about it.

"That is the Evening Star", she replies. And I loved that. I immediately grabbed my materials and started laying down the overall idea for it. Storms were wailing, candles burning. There was wind medicine. A perfect backdrop for creating.

And when you look at her, you can see remnants of the original idea - but somewhere along the way, she took on a life of her own. "My body is full of stars" she murmured. I never disagree, but indulge these visitations, and allow them to form themselves - and at some point, I knew this was not the Evening Star I had imagined, but something else in her won right.

I hastily titled this Andromeda when she was finished, but it bothered me all morning. "Find me" she insisted, and so I began to google "Star Goddesses". And there she was, almost the first thing I saw. Nuit.

As it often is, reading about her only underscored the fact that this was, indeed, who she was. Particularly as regards Crowley and Thelema, because I was so prompted to initially post her with the quote "Every man and woman is a star."

Things she loved upon the reading of them:

"Nuit cries: "I love you," like a lover;. She woos like a mistress whispers "To me!" in every ear;

As well as these quotes from Crowley's commentaries to The Book of the Law

"Note that Heaven is not a place where Gods Live; Nuit is Heaven, itself.""Nuit is All that which exists, and the condition of that existence. Hadit is the Principle which causes modifications in this Being. This explains how one may call Nuit Matter, and Hadit Motion.""It should be evident that Nuit obtains the satisfaction of Her Nature when the parts of Her Body fulfill their own Nature. The sacrament of life is not only so from the point of view of the celebrants, but from that of the divinity invoked."And as if to underscore my recognition, this:

In Egyptian mythology, Nut was the sky goddess. She is the daughter of Shu and Tefnut.

The sun god Ra entered her mouth after the sun set in the evening and was reborn from her vulva the next morning. She also swallowed and rebirthed stars. She was a goddess of death, and her image is on the inside of most sarcophagi. The pharaoh entered her body after death and was later resurrected.

In art, Nut is depicted as a woman wearing no clothes, covered with stars